Hellenistic Period / Intertestamental Works
Broad Outline of Topics:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
I.
Intertestamental Period
a. Decline of Persian Influence
b. Hellenistic Period
i. Philip of Macedonia and Alexander the Great
ii. Cultural Upheaval for Jews
iii. Antiochus IV “Antiochus the Madman”
iv. Hasmonean Dynasty
Intertestamental Works
a. Septuagint
b. Deuterocanonical Works / Apocrypha
i. Books of Maccabees
c. Apocalyptic Literature
i. Daniel
d. Pseudepigrapha
Roman Influence
a. Cults within Empire
i. Emperor Cult
ii. Philosophical Religions
1. Cynicism
2. Stoicism
3. Neo-Pythagoreanism
4. Epicureanism
5. Hedonism
iii. Mystery Religions
1. Cult of Isis
2. Cult of Mithras
3. Eleusinian Cult
An Approach to Understanding the Gospels
Gospel Interpretation
The Synoptic Problem
Historical-Critical Methodology
Intertestamental Period
Intertestamental period is identified as the period of history marked either by the Persian
occupation (532-332) or the Greek occupation (332-164). This period is sometimes referred to as
the 400 Silent Years, not because not much happened but rather, scholars say, because the period
of prophecy had ended.
a. Decline of Persian Influence
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Hellenistic Period / Intertestamental Works
By 334 BCE, when Alexander the Great marched his armies across the Hellespont in order to
seize the Persian Empire for himself, the Greeks and Persians had been at war for a number of
generations. Darius III, king of Persia was defeated, first at Granicus, then at Isssus and finally at
Garugamela in 331 BCE. When Alexander died in 323 BCE, he had brought the entire Persian
Empire under his thumb.
The Jews of Judah were rather insignificant compared to these world powers. However, during
Persian occupation, there had been three major changes in the post-exilic Jewish community:
1. In place of an independent monarchy with its “sacred king” was a temple-state
governed by the high priest and a priestly aristocracy subject to a foreign power.
2. While prophecy continued (Haggai and Zechariah; see Zech 13:2-6), there was also
concern for its decline (1 Macc 9:27)
3. The growing centrality of the Torah and the necessity of its interpretation for the affairs
of everyday life
In summary, Israel was under the control of the Persian Empire from about 532-332 B.C. The
Persians allowed the Jews to practice their religion with little interference. They were even
allowed to rebuild and worship at the temple (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4). This period
included the last 100 or so years of the Old Testament period and about the first 100 years of
the Intertestamental period.
b. Hellenistic Period
The death of Alexander the Great in 323 bce led to a bitter political power struggle among his
Macedonian generals. In the period after 301, four distinct Hellenistic kingdoms emerged:
1. The Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt and north African coast, established by Ptolemy I of
Egypt
2. The Seleucid Kingdom established by Seleucus I of Syria
3. The Antigonid Kingdom (Macedonia and parts of Greece)
4. The Attalid Kingdom in western Asia Minor
Meanwhile, a fifth power was rising over the western horizon: Rome.
The Egyptian Ptolemies allowed the Jews relative independence during the 3rd century. In 198
bce, however, the Seleucids gained control of Palestine. At first, the Jews welcomed this Syrian
presence. However, in 190 bce, the Romans defeated the Seleucids and forced them and their
colonies to pay a huge compensation. Then in 175 bce, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who claimed to
be divine (Epiphanes in Greek means “god manifest”), took the Seleucid throne. He sought to
enforce Hellenization throughout his empire and to raise the indemnity demanded by Rome.
The Jewish urban aristocracy complied. Some priests began to bid for the High Priesthood.
They also tried to carry out a “Hellenistic reform,” that is, to abolish the ancestral laws and
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transform Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city-state. These events produced an internal Jewish
conflict that had momentous results.
Antiochus the Madman
Rumors of Antiochus’ death prompted a civil war amongst the priestly families. Antiochus, who
was in fact not dead, misinterpreted the unrest as a revolt against Hellenization. On his return
to Jerusalem to squelch the overthrow, he had 80,000 Jews killed. His response also was to
forbid Temple sacrifice, destroy Torah scrolls and force everyone to worship Greek gods.
He also entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple and set up pagan idols there and sacrificed pigs
upon the altar ("abomination of desolation" mentioned in Daniel 8 and 11; Daniel 8:8-13
describes this time). Antiochus established the following laws in Jerusalem: Jews could not
assemble for prayer; Observance of the Sabbath was forbidden; possession of the Scriptures
was illegal; circumcision was illegal; it was illegal to refuse to eat hogs or any other food that
was prohibited by the Mosaic Law; it was illegal not to participate in the monthly sacrifice
honoring Antiochus. This involved eating of the meat that had been offered in sacrifice.
Antiochus Epiphanes’ career with respect to Palestine is also recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees,
and “predicted” in Daniel 11:21-35"
1 and 2 Maccabees are deuterocanonical / apocryphal and are valuable as historical accounts.
Maccabean Revolt: The Jewish response to forced Hellenization was a war of social, religious,
and national liberation. The initial phase was the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 bce). (Story of
Mattathias and his sons, and the Hasidim – see 1 Macc 2)
Rededication of the Temple – “Festival of Lights” = Feast of Hanukkah
Hasmonean Dynasty – Maccabean family, a priestly Jewish family, rule over Judea
autonomously ridding themselves of foreign domination. This rule, 167-63 bce, will be the last
time that Jews control their own land until 1948, when post-WWII state of Israel is established.
Another feature of the Hasmonean period is the rise of various Jewish sects: Sadducees,
Pharisees, and Essenes.
In general, two trends dominated the Greek period in Palestine (332 – 63 bce):
1. The gradual Hellenization of the Jewish aristocracy
2. The reaction of the religiously conservative peasant classes to forced Hellenization,
resulting in the Maccabean Revolt and the independent Maccabean (Hasmonean)
dynasty. Their banner was “zeal for the Law.”
II.
Intertestamental Works
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Most of the books written between the last book of the Hebrew Bible and the first book of the New
Testament did not make it into the canon (Daniel is an exception). These books still have
importance for biblical studies and are regarded as deuterocanonical or apocryphal depending upon
to whom you speak. Books recorded during this time are generally included in most Catholic and
Orthodox Bibles, but only in a few Protestant Bibles.
a. Septuagint
Alexander was a student of Aristotle, and so was well educated in Greek philosophy and politics.
He required that Greek culture be promoted in every land that he conquered. As a result, the
Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, becoming the translation known as the
Septuagint. Most of the NT references to Hebrew Scripture use the Septuagint phrasing. This
translation of the Hebrew Canon included more books than earlier collections. The extra books
were omitted by Jewish religious leaders when they reassessed their canon at the Council of
Jamnia in 90 CE.
Legend of the Septuagint
Ptolemy hired and housed 72 rabbis, according to the Letter of Aristeas. Each separately
translated the Hebrew Scriptures in 70 days time. Their translations matched perfectly. Because
of this, the translation was known as the "Septuagint" (Latin: "Seventy") and is often
abbreviated by the Roman numeral LXX. This was to become the most popular and widely used
translation of the Hebrew Bible.
b. Deuterocanonical / Apocryphal Works
A Jewish council was held in Jamnia in approximately 90 CE that determined the canon of the
Hebrew Bible for Jews. The council removed those works from the Septuagint that were not
originally written in Hebrew. In the 16th c, Protestants would adopt this Jewish canon but
Catholics and Orthodox Christians would hold to the older collection that included more works.
Titles
1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to the Book of Esther, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus),
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel (Prayer of Azariah, Song of the Three
Hebrew Children, History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon), the Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2
Maccabees
Books of Maccabees
Four Jewish books named after Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the first two . Books 1 and 2
provide a vivid account of Jewish resistance to the religious suppression and Hellenistic cultural
penetration of the Seleucid period (175 - 135 BC). 1 Maccabees is generally considered
historically more reliable where the two are parallel. 2 Maccabees is of value because it
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Hellenistic Period / Intertestamental Works
describes in greater detail the Hellenistic reform and the origin of the revolt prior to the
emergence of the Maccabees, and because it provides greater insight into the history of the
Jewish religion.
The First Book of the Maccabees
This book provides a history of the Maccabean revolt from the accession of Antiochus IV
Epiphanes in 175 bce until the death of Simon, one of the leaders of the Jewish resistance and
then high priest and ethnarch, in 132 bce. The struggle is the point of a clash between
Hellenistic culture and the exclusivism of Judaism. The book was composed in Hebrew,
sometime after the death of John Hyrcanus, Simon’s son, in 104 bce but before the beginning of
Roman rule in Palestine in 63 bce. It is the primary source for the history of the period.
Purpose of 1 Maccabees
The purpose of 1 Maccabees seems to be to legitimate the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) as rulers
of Palestine in consequence of the contribution made to the liberation of Judea from Seleucid
rule by the founders of the dynasty, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, the sons of Mattathias.
Maccabee means ‘the hammer’ in Hebrew and is the nickname of Judas, possibly because of the
hammerlike blows he dealt the enemy. It is applied more generally to the three brothers as well
as to the revolt they led.
The Second Book of the Maccabees
This book provides a second history of the Maccabean revolt, written from a different
perspective. Where 1 Macc is concerned to praise Judas, Jonathan, and Simon for their role in
the liberation of the Jewish people from Seleucid oppression, 2 Macc focuses upon the insult to
the Temple and its cult, for which it holds the Jewish Hellenizers primarily responsible. The
period covered by 2 Maccabees is about 180-161 bce
Difference in Literary Style
2 Maccabees is generally termed a ‘pathetic’ history (from Gk. pathos, ‘emotion’ or ‘feeling’)
because of the way in which it dwells upon the deaths of the righteous martyrs or the wicked
king in a manner designed to evoke compassionate or contemptuous pity in the reader
c. Apocalyptic Literature
Another genre that emerged during the period of Hellenization is that of apocalyptic. The Jews
adopt this Greek literary style which is especially evident in the Book of Daniel. The Book of
Daniel is a highly symbolic work that interprets the people’s political, social, and religious crises.
The adjective form, apocalyptic, is a modern label for end-time literature associated with
identifiable religious and sociological perspectives. Apocalypticism applies to the thought world
or worldview of the communities that gave rise to apocalyptic literature. It was mostly written
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during times of political persecution, intended to encourage perseverance by revealing the
destruction of the wicked and revealing the glorious future that awaited the faithful. In its
social, political, or economic alienation the community constructs an alternate universe where
eventually it will triumph. This alternate universe comes to expression in apocalyptic literature
Characteristics of the Literature





Paired opposites pitted against each other
o Good and evil (exclusivism)
o Heaven and earth (cosmic dualism)
o This age and the next (chronological dualism)
o Sons of light vs. Sons of darkness (ethical dualism)
Reports of visions from God that explain how the faithful will overcome evil (symbolic
language)
Often speaks of life after death (eschatology)
New leader who will rule on behalf of God (limited theology)
Ultimately the goal of the author was to inspire hope in the midst of what appeared to
be a lost cause.
Exclusivism, Cosmic dualism, Chronological dualism, Ethical dualism, Use of Symbolic Language,
Eschatology, Limited Theology, Hope
Daniel: The Literary World
Daniel is a book of heroes and apocalyptic visions. It is intended to inspire hope and courage
among Jews living within monstrous empires they considered the personification of evil. Daniel
7 contains Daniel's vision of four empire beasts that are judged for their deeds before the
Ancient of Days in the heavenly courtroom. The book can be divided more or less cleanly into
two main parts based on content: Chapters 1-6: contain six tales of Jewish heroism set in the
late 7th and 6th c BCE; Chapters 7-12: contain four apocalypses which Daniel narrates in the
first-person.
Part 1 – Chapters 1-6
This part contains some of the most popular stories in the Hebrew Bible:



Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace
Daniel in the lion's den
The handwriting on the wall
Tales had moral and spiritual lessons with special application to Jews living in the Diaspora. The
message of the Hero Tales seems to stress that fidelity to Mosaic Torah brings divine reward.
Also, ultimately the evil kingdoms of this world will crumble before the kingdom of God, for
Yahweh orders history.
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Part 2 – Chapters 7-12 - Apocalypses (7-12)




The four beasts and the Son of Man (7)
The ram and the goat (8)
Gabriel interprets Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy weeks (9)
Vision of future history (10-12)
Daniel: The Historical World
Stories set around the time of the Babylonian exile and the tales may have originated at that
time. However, the apocalypses of chapters 7-12 betray a much later setting. The history they
(fore-)tell culminates in the time of the Maccabees, specifically the years of Antiochus IV. The
evidence strongly suggests that the apocalypses were written around 165 B.C.E. Although many
Jews accommodated and assimilated to Hellenism, others opposed any sort of compromise
III.
d. Other Works Emerging from this Period - Pseudepigrapha
 Other works emerging from this period of Hellenization include what is known as
pseudepigraphal works meaning "books with false titles." These works are books similar
in type to those of the Bible whose authors gave them the names of persons of a much
earlier period in order to enhance their authority. They are important for the light they
throw on Judaism and early Christianity. These works can also be written about Biblical
matters, often in such a way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which
have been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
Examples:
i. Epistle of Jude, for example, reflects knowledge of Enoch and the Assumption of
Moses.
ii. Letter ofAristeas offers us the legend of the Septuagint (6 members each from
the 12 tribes of Israel – 72 – translate the HB into Greek at the request of the
Egyptian, presumably Ptolemy II Philadelphus, in 72 days).
Roman Influence: Religions in the First Century Greco-Roman World
a. Great variety of pagan cults that emphasized ritual and sacrifice over worship of the
divine
Members of cults would appease their chosen divinity to ensure health, wealth,
prosperity, favors, etc.
To the Romans, religion was less a spiritual experience than a contractual relationship
between humankind and the forces which were believed to control people's existence
and well-being.
Endorsed by the Empire
i.
Behaviors associated with cultic devotions were endorsed by the empire
ii.
State religious rituals were believed to protect the empire as a whole
iii.
Domestic rituals, where families conducted rituals and sacrifices to local
deities, had the same purpose but, led by the father of the house, were meant
to protect the household
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b. Varieties of Cults
i. Emperor Cult
ii. Philosophical Religions
iii. Domestic / Local Cults
iv. Mystery Cults
c. Emperor Cult
i.
The emperor or ruler cult started as an expression of gratitude to benefactors
and became an expression of homage and loyalty.
ii.
It was a matter of giving to the ruler, not getting from him (except indirectly)
iii.
In other words, supernatural assistance was not expected from him in the
same way it was sought from the gods.
iv.
The religious meaning was not as great as its social and political importance
where it served to testify to loyalty and to satisfy the ambition of leading
families.
v.
Has special importance for the study of early Christianity because it formed
the focal point of the early church's conflict with paganism
d. Philosophical Religions
i.
The goal of Freedom lay at the heart of most of the religious movements and
philosophies of the world, each propounding some special way to achieve it.
ii.
Cynicism
iii.
Stoicism
iv.
Neo-Pythagoreanism
v.
Epicureanism
vi.
Hedonism
e. Cynicism
i.
Pursued freedom from cares of life by seeking only what was available in
nature; typically eschewed civic affairs
ii.
Rather than a 'school' of philosophy, it was an informal group of philosophers
with certain attitudes and unconventional behaviors who either called
themselves Cynics or were so-called by others.
iii.
Cynicism involves living the simple life in order that the soul can be set free.
iv.
By eliminating one’s needs and possessions, one can better concentrate on
the life of philosophy.
f. Stoicism
i.
Emphasized self-control and rational examination of the order in the world
ii.
Minimized relying on nature and focused on human understanding instead
iii.
The founder of stoicism is Zeno of Citium (333-262) in Cyprus.
iv.
He lectured his students on the value of apatheia, the absence of passion,
something not too different from the Buddhist idea of non-attachment.
g. Neo-Pythagoreanism
i.
Revival of ancient Pythagoreanism (dating back to 5th c BCE)
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ii.
Freedom for neo-pythagoreanists meant capitalizing on Pythagoras’
discoveries
iii.
Mathematical basis of natural elements as well as many human concepts
(music for example); calculated movement of stars; invented geometry
iv.
Harmony was thus the secret to life and freedom within life
v.
Disharmony came from that which was not associated with numbers and
proportions, i.e., the bodies appetites and passions
h. Epicureanism
i.
Sought freedom by withdrawal from the uncertainties of life
ii.
Emphasized the material realm of reality and were often hedonists to some
extent in that they emphasized and valued material and physical pleasures
iii.
Epicureans were not Hedonists because Epicureans would seek pleasure by
eliminating bodily and mental suffering (so their methods differed)
iv.
Drinking wine is pleasurable (both would agree) but Epicureans would not
over-indulge as that would lead to pain/suffering later
i. Hedonism
i.
The philosophy of Hedonism is quite simple:
ii.
Whatever human do, we do it to gain pleasure or to avoid pain.
iii.
Pleasure is the ultimate good, and the achievement of pleasure the only
virtue.
iv.
They regard morality as merely a matter of cultural customs and laws, (ethical
relativism is our term for this).
v.
Science, art, civilization in general, are good only to the extent that they are
useful in producing pleasure.
j. Domestic / Local Cults
i.
Analogical to the Emperor Cult where the emperor was the head of the sociocultural family, domestic cults quite common throughout ancient Rome
ii.
Every family belonged to a clan, and these clans themselves had special
patron gods and corresponding rites.
iii.
The worship of these spirits is what truly defines Roman religion, and what
really separates it from the sister religion of Greek paganism.
k. Mystery Cults
i.
A mystery religion is a religious organization or cult which is focused mainly on
a single deity.
ii.
This deity usually has something which it can offer to the individual member
of the society.
iii.
The distinguishing characteristics of a mystery religion are the focus on the
individual, a sense of community and generally a salvation theme.
iv.
Details of the cults remain a mystery to us as the devotees were successful in
keeping them secret.
l. Varieties of Mystery Cults
i.
Isis
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ii.
Mithras
iii.
Eleusinian Mysteries
iv.
Cult Figures
m. Characteristics of the Mystery Cults
i.
The cultic behaviors probably included some singing or dancing during a
reenactment of the myth.
ii.
Initiation rites were ceremoniously conducted in secret.
iii.
The rites most likely included purification through sacred baths in streams and
the sea as well as three days of fasting and an unknown central rite.
iv.
By joining, the members were promised some advantages in the afterlife, as in
any good salvation cult.
n. Competition Amongst Mystery Cults
i.
During the early Empire, the cults of Mithras and Isis were very popular,
though were later driven nearly to extinction by Christianity.
o. Temple Inscriptions
i.
Thanks to Minerva, that she restored my hair.
ii.
Thanks to Jupiter Leto, that my wife bore a child.
iii.
Thanks to Zeus Helios the Great Sarapis, Savior and Giver of wealth.
iv.
Thanks to Silvanus, from a vision, for freedom from slavery.
v.
Thanks to Jupiter, that my taxes were lessened.
vi.
I pray for the safety of my colony and its senate and people, because Jupiter
Best and Greatest by his numen tore out and rescued the names of the
decurions that had been fixed to monuments by the unspeakable crime of that
most wicked city-slave who refused to work...
An Approach to Understanding the Gospels (the following draws from: Barr, David, New Testament
Story: An Introduction, 4th ed., (Wadsworth, Cengage: Belmont, CA), 2009.
IV.
Understanding how to interpret the Gospels
a. First, it is important to know exactly what the word, gospel, means.
i. Old English, godspel (good spell) where “spel” refers not to magic but to “story”
ii. A gospel, then, is a good story
iii. Greek term for gospel, “euangellion” or “evangellion” means a good
announcement
iv. Another clue is that we have four Gospels which implies that, while they are
ultimately rooted in the events of Jesus’ life, each author told the story slightly
differently for a variety of reasons
b. Second, when we recognize that there are differences in the Gospels, we might first
struggle with which one is “true.”
c. This struggle is best addressed by recognizing how we may go about interpreting these
stories
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V.
i. While the Gospel narrative ARE rooted in the events of Jesus’ life in first
century-Palestine, what has been handed down to us is not meant to be a
factual detailed history simply recounting the events as they actually happened.
ii. Rather we gave Gospel narratives shaped by:
1. Author’s purposes
2. Plotting devices
3. Ancient views of how humans work
4. Readers’ expectations
5. The overarching views of the real meaning of the Gospel story
d. A Case in Point: The Empty Tomb Stories
i. The four accounts of the empty tomb story vary in details so much that some
have even questioned if they all refer to the same event
ii. We will proceed not with a focus so much on how to reconcile these differences
but rather to examine how biblical scholars have interpreted these differences.
Gospel Interpretation
a. The ancient approach to dealing with the apparent contradictions and differences
within the gospel narratives usually favored one of three solutions.
i. Elimination
ii. Combination
iii. Harmonization
b. Elimination
i. Some groups sought to only accept one gospel as legitimate; there were
supporters for each of the four that eventually made it into the canon
ii. This reductive attempt to achieve unity by rejecting multiple gospels never
gained wide support in the churches.
c. Combination
i. Tatian, a church leader in the year of about 170, attempted to solve the
problem by combining the four Gospels into one blended account.
ii. This work was called the Diatessaron, which translates as “Through the Four.”
iii. Although this was a very ingenious way to find unity, it too was not without
problems.
1. He hides some problems
a. The Lukan motivation of coming to anoint the body ignores the
Matthean version that they come only “to see the tomb”
b. Tatian’s version also ignores the Johannine version in which the
anointing was done before burial
c. He also distorts only details like
i. When and how to move the stone
ii. Angels or men present
iii. Return to Galilee or not
iv. To tell others or to keep silent
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VI.
d. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, asserted that there must be four gospels by insisting that
there is really only one Gospel but these four highlight differences that are necessary for
humanity to have diversity in the unity
e. Augustine’s Harmony of the Gospels is a good example of this intellectual balance of a
fourfold gospel underlying the Gospel story which basically holds that each Gospel
writer chose to highlight what another Gospel writer minimized or ignored
i. A problem with this approach is not so much that is isn’t possible to harmonize
the gospels this way but rather that it may distort the way the story should be
understood by each particular gospel writer.
f. The Modern Approach: Criticism
i. The term “criticism” here refers to being able to discern, to make distinctions.
Thus, a critic is a person of discernment.
ii. Criticism involves asking disciplined questions designed to elicit the information
we want to know.
iii. Modern Biblical Criticism may be traced back to the Enlightenment in the 18th
century when it was intertwined with the 19th century discovery of the modern
idea of history.
iv. But the gospels are not to be read as historical documents as we understand
history; rather we must be sensitive to the original authors’ intentions and to
whom the author tailored his message, i.e., knowing the audience too.
Synoptic Problem
a. Once biblical interpreters faced the issue of interdependence head on, i.e., letting go of
the idea that the Gospels were written in the order as they appear in the Bible, a new
problem emerged.
i. Three of the gospels were so very much alike, they each obviously were related
to the other two. But which one came first?
1. This problem is known as the synoptic problem.
2. The three that look and sound so much alike are Matthew, Mark, and
Luke.
ii. Scholars studied them to determine which came first on the assumption that
knowing the earliest Gospel gets us closer to the roots of the story
iii. Virtually all scholars agree that Mark was written first, even though it is not the
first gospel in the canon.
b. Excursus on Markan Priority
i. The subject matter of Mark is more extensively found in Matthew and Luke than
either of MT or Lk is found in Mark.
ii. In all but three cases, when a Markan passage is missing in Mt or Lk, it is found
in the other one. This implies that Mark is the common element for both Mt
and Lk
iii. The order of Mark is more clearly reflected in Mt and Lk than the order of either
of these is reflected in Mark.
iv. Mt and Lk improve upon some awkward expressions found in Mark
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Hellenistic Period / Intertestamental Works
v. It is simply easier to imagine Mt as an expansion of Mark as opposed to Mark
being an abbreviated version of Mt or Lk
vi. Another tradition emerges when scholars note that Mt and Lk share a
remarkable amount of material that is not found in Mark
1. The Q Source is theorized: Q is the symbol for the German word Quelle,
meaning source.
2. The theory is that the authors of Mt and Lk appealed to another written
source that no longer exists
vii. Where Mt and Lk do not agree with either Mark or each other, scholars
speculate that each offered new and unique material to their telling of Jesus’
story
viii. A diagram depicts this Four-Source Theory
VII.
Historical-Critical Methodology
a. Variety from the Oral Transmission of the Tradition
i. Form Criticism
1. Attempts to determine the form of the tradition (legend, hymn, curse,
lament, myth, example story, folk tale, etc.) and to determine the
typical situation in which that form would have been used (hymns in
worship; example stories in educating children; myths to offer meaning)
2. Form criticism is a way of analyzing how later writers/editors recorded
the stories that had been part of more ancient history and preserved
orally until they were eventually recorded
3. As used by NT scholars, form criticism seeks to analyze how the Gospels
emerged from oral traditions in a variety of settings to smoothly
presented narratives as offered by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John
a. Because the first three gospels are so similar, their oral
traditions and settings were most likely highly related to each
other
b. Because John’s gospel is so different, we can assume another
tradition existed beside that one that inspired the synoptic
gospels
b. Variety from the Editing Process
i. Redaction Criticism
1. By means of this analysis of editorial and compositional techniques,
critics hope to discern the particular perspective of each writer, what
was each author’s theology.
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2. Redaction critics discovered that each writer had a design that shaped
the story of Jesus
a. Each gospel writer was shaping the Jesus story for a particular
audience and for a particular emphasis on Jesus’ identity
c. Variety from the Writing of Literature
i. Studying narrative means honing skills to understand how the author shows
meaning as opposed to explicitly saying what is meant.
1. E.g., a story is more engaging than a manual
ii. Literary criticism of biblical narrative applies many of the techniques used by
literary criticisms in general
1. The logical unity of the story’s actions
2. The nature of its world
3. The significance of its characters
4. Analysis of the tensions in a story
a. E.g., the narrative role fulfilled by the women or disciples may
vary greatly among the different Gospels
b. Their characters may require a certain response dictated by the
larger narrative
iii. Aristotle’s distinction between history and poetry provides an analogy on a
basic level:
1. Just as poetry is concerned with universals and history is concerned
with particulars, art reflects and interprets and life simply is.
2. Applied to our study of the Gospels then, the Gospel writers artfully
interpret Jesus’ life
iv. Compare the 3 versions in Acts of the Gospel being delivered to the Gentiles
1. Acts 9:1-30; 22:1-21; and 26:12-20
2. Each version adds more thus building its significance and illustrating
Luke’s ultimate goal, namely, Paul was commissioned to preach to the
Gentiles
a. Acts 9: commissioning from Ananias 9:15
b. Acts 22: Paul receives divine commissioning while praying in
Temple
c. Acts 26: Paul sees risen Jesus
d. Variety Understood as Oral Performance
i. Scholars are becoming more sensitive to the differences in thinking and
perspectives associated with oral cultures as opposed to literary cultures
1. Models of transmission are different
2. Where we think more linearly – there was one original telling from
which all subsequent versions emerged – oral cultures are more
complex
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Hellenistic Period / Intertestamental Works
a. Many versions existed simultaneously and the authors
ultimately drew from a variety of sources
b. The gospels, too, would influences “sources”
c. The idea here is to see the stories more as an interconnected
web where all versions impact each other
e. Our Approach
i. Rely on the findings of Source Criticism which asserts Markan priority
ii. Form Criticism asks two kinds of questions:
1. What is the literary form of a particular unit?
2. What is the pre-Gospel history of such a unit?
iii. Redaction Criticism questions focus on what each writer has done to shape the
traditions used
1. Caveat – our emphasis in studying the editing process will not be on the
writers but on their respective presentation of Jesus
iv. Literary Criticism
1. Will focus on the plots of the stories
2. Portrayal of characters
3. Images
4. Motifs
5. Points of View
6. Structure
v. Historicist vs. Literary View
1. Historicist is perhaps too simplified because it assumes to view the story
as a direct account showing what actually happened as if the story were
simply a window into the past
2. Literary View may give us a glimpse into what actually happened but the
writer has styled the account and used literary tools such as plotting,
characterization, points of view, symbolism, etc., to provide a mirror
reflecting the past.
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